


Connecting the Spots

by KageSora



Series: Adrien is Not a Cat [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, and there will be fluff, but it starts with a serious tone, it's a serious one, it's not dark and depressing though, sorry guys this one isn't full of silly and humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 08:03:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5960016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KageSora/pseuds/KageSora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chat reaches a breaking point because of the stress of his changed behavior and has a chat with his Lady.  Marinette finally puts two and two together.  Will it finally be the Princess's turn to save her Knight?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connecting the Spots

**Author's Note:**

> Well, looks like I've finally figured where I was heading with this little series (well, not that this will end it). This first chapter (holy shit will I finally finish a multichapter project?!) is a more serious tone than I've done with this before. Never fear, though. These two dorks deserve lots of silly and happy and cute, and they WILL get it eventually. This won't be overly long, though--probably just one or two more chapters. This one has more focus on Marinette than I've done.

Three months.

Three months it had been since this embarrassing problem of his started.  Three solid months of torment as the side-effects of being a miraculous holder sank their claws ever-deeper into his mind and body.

He’d lost count of the number of times he’d embarrassed himself in front of his friends, or total strangers.  Marinette had been the first to jump to his defense, explaining that he was under a _lot_ of stress these days and it was just clearly manifesting in a weird way.  Nino and Alya had gotten on board the “Adrien is having some kind of weird breakdown because he’s too stressed” train.

Still, he was grateful for it.  They’d stopped asking.  Marinette would show him concern, but wouldn’t push.  She’d tolerate his behavior, his odd cat-like tendencies.  She’d indulge him, he’d found to his mixed horror and relief.  Sometimes he would hang out at her place, and she’d roll some yarn for him, or let him curl up in a box, or play with a laser pointer.  He’d been mortified at first.

But she didn’t judge.  She cared about him, she was kind and sweet and gentle and he found himself struggling with his feelings because he loved his Lady, of course, but Marinette was taking up an ever-larger place in his heart.

She seemed to understand that this was frustrating and embarrassing and something he didn’t like but couldn’t help, even if she didn’t know why.  And, rather than turning from him, she invited him into her life more than ever, taking him under her wing and offering him a friendship unlike any other.  Nino was his best friend, but Marinette...  He didn’t know how to put it into words what he had with the dark-haired girl.

Just that she seemed to really be making an effort to get to know him for who he was, to help him and comfort him when he got frustrated with his urges and needs, and that she never pushed him to explain the why behind it all.

And that was how he found himself spending more and more time essentially acting like her large, oddly-shaped pet cat.

He still hated it, even Plagg was getting worried.  Not over his behavior--the Kwami _had_  told him that some Chats would get it so bad they’d be more animal than human even if they gave up their miraculous.  But the toll it took on the young hero was what worried the cat-like spirit.

Adrien seemed hell-bent on rejecting it, when honestly there wasn’t anything that could be done.  Oh, sure, plenty of Chats before had struggled with it.  But it always worried Plagg when his chosen took it this hard.

Chat had been late to patrols lately, spending more and more time with Marinette.  He didn’t notice how his Lady always seemed to get there only just before him, still out of breath from rushing when he arrived more often than not.

Tonight had been quiet.  More so than usual, even--the blond couldn’t bring himself to engage in his usual flirting and banter and even his puns didn’t come naturally this time.

Part of it was exhaustion.  He was still struggling with balancing everything, and worrying over this problem took it’s toll on him.  Another part of it was his  thinking about his Lady and his Princess, and trying to sort out his feelings.

And the biggest part of it...

Was him trying to figure out how to bring the subject up with Ladybug without revealing too much about what was going on or making things too weird.  It was hard enough as it was to try and minimize his cat-like behaviors around her.

The pair sat together on a beam of the Eiffel Tower, gazing out at the glowing city before them.  It was Ladybug who broke the silence first, to Chat’s ever-lasting relief.

“Chat?  Are...  You okay?  You’ve been really quiet the last few patrols.”

He didn’t answer right away, still trying to sort out his thoughts.  Several minutes passed in more silence before he finally spoke, his voice soft and his gaze locked on the city before him.

“Ladybug...  Do you ever...  Does your...”

He fell silent again, unsure of how, exactly to word this.  He was glad that she didn’t press, though he sensed her shifting a bit closer to him.

“Does...  Being Ladybug have side-effects?”

He snuck a glance at her, seeing her eyes widen in surprise and confusion at the question.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean...  Like...  Does it ever change you?  When you’re not in the mask?  Like, how you behave?”

He turned a little more towards her, trying to keep his face impassive as he watched the way her brows knit together as she tried to understand exactly what he asked of her.  He let out a deep sigh.

“Guess not...  Must just be my bad luck.”

Chat gave a bitter laugh, shaking his head.  Of course.  Of _course_  he would be the only one impacted this way.  Being Chat had been too good, of course, for his luck.  Too perfect.  The freedom had been what he’d craved, and he’d met the love of his life--possible more than one (but he wasn’t thinking about that now, nope, that was a problem for another time he told himself).  It had to come at a price--everything in life did, after all.

He pushed himself to his feet.

“Night, LB.”

Before he was able to make his escape he felt her hand close around his wrist with surprising strength.  He looked up at her, breath catching in his chest for a moment at just how blue her eyes were.  He’d always known they were a stunning shade of the color, but somehow they seemed more intense.  The way her face scrunched a little, the slight pout to her lip...  He was startled to realize that the way she looked at him was very similar to the concerned looks Marinette would give him when he was having a particularly cat-like day.

“Chat, please.  Tell me what you mean.”

He turned away for a moment, looking at the ground.  Bringing his eyes back up to look out at the city once more he said in an even quieter voice--almost too quiet to be properly understood, “It’s...  It’s complicated...”

“I want to know.  And, if I can, I want to help you.”

He didn’t respond.  Instead he carefully took his wrist from her grip, shaking his head and launched himself off with his baton, ignoring her cries.  He wasn’t ready for this, he wasn’t able to handle talking about this more right now.

* * *

 

Marinette was at a loss.  She could only stare after her partner, trying to figure out his words to her.  She had no idea what he meant, what he could possibly mean.  Something was wrong--it was _very_  wrong to have her kitty this worked up.  He wasn’t lashing out as many do, but his silence, his turning inwards was a very clear sign to any who knew him that he was deeply upset by something.  And it was clearly something that had been on his mind for some time now.

She’d noticed that he’d started to act differently a few weeks back.  She did what she could to be supportive, to let him know that she was there for him, but he always brushed her off with a cheeky grin and silly pun.  He didn’t want her to worry, of course--that was obvious to anybody who would spend more than 2 seconds with him.  He wasn’t the sort to want to burden others with his problems.

No, her partner was the sort to bundle it all up until it ate away at him from the inside out and he self-destructed.  And that was what scared her the most.

Still, there was nothing more that she could do tonight.  She knew that any attempts to call him would be met with silence--that is, if she could even get through to him.  He might very well have de-transformed already and thus be unreachable.

She hurled herself from the Tower, yo-yo coming up to swing away towards her home.

* * *

 

Adrien collapsed on his bed, sighing deeply as Plagg nibbled on cheese beside him.

“You okay, kid?”

Adrien just mewled, not up to forming actual words.  He felt as the kwami came over to him and patted his head with a tiny paw.  His only response was another tired mewl.

Plagg floated back over to his cheese, watching his chosen with concern.

“It’s not all bad, right?  That Marinette really seems to like you and doesn’t mind.”

Adrien didn’t even dignify that with a response--obviously she was just humoring him, and found him weird because he was.  (In his head he knew this was wrong--Marinette was truly a kind person who genuinely cared for him.  His heart, however, didn’t feel like listening to his brain for the moment.)

The silence stretched between them, Plagg knowing that it was useless to try and comfort him with words at this point.  Finishing his cheese, the cat-like spirit settled down on his charge’s head, burrowing into his hair, allowing a soft rumble to escape him.

The purr was all he could do, letting it comfort his distressed kitten.

* * *

 

Marinette paced her room while her Kwami recharged, the bug-like spirit’s eyes following her as she moved.

“I’m just so worried about him, Tikki.  I’ve never seen him like this...”

The Kwami didn’t speak, instead continuing to eat a cookie, but Marinette hadn’t been looking for a response.  She needed to ramble for the moment.  And so she did--rambling about her worry for him, how he’d behaved, her words shifting to include another green-eyed blond who she cared and worried for.

Suddenly she stopped pacing, something tingling through her body.  She didn’t know what it was, but there was something there, something that she needed to figure out, something that she was on the very edge of realizing--something important.  She turned towards Tikki.

“Tikki...  What did Chat mean by ‘side-effects’?”

Silence passed, Marinette trying to pin down exactly why it was so important to know.  Finally, the Kwami spoke.

“It happens sometimes.  Chat Noir usually experiences it more intensely than Ladybug or other miraculous holders, usually because of the bad luck.  And it’s not the same for every chosen of the Kwami.  Sometimes, our chosen take on...  Certain of our characteristics.”

Marinette frowned and asked, “What does that mean?”

Tikki took up another cookie and took a few bites, picking words carefully to convey the idea without alarming Marinette.

“Well...  Since you became Ladybug you’ve gained an appreciation for plants, right?”

The girl nodded, not quite sure where this was going.

“Well, that’s because ladybugs like plants.  Because they’re drawn to the aphids there.  And you’ve not done so well in winter...  Because like me, you don’t tolerate cold well.  Ladybugs hibernate in winter, after all.”

Marinette watched Tikki for a few moments, processing this in her mind.

“So...  Sometimes a Ladybug might display some kind of bug-like behavior?”

“That’s right.”

“And...  That means a Chat might act...  Like...  A...”

Her voice trailed off, eyes widening.

“A cat...”

Tikki almost didn’t hear her, the whisper was so quiet, but the little Kwami nodded.

Marinette sat down in her chair very abruptly.  She knew a green-eyed blond who had begun acting like a cat.  She knew one.  And he wasn’t Chat.

Except...

She suddenly couldn’t breathe.  Their voices were the same.  Sure, the words they used and the ease with which they spoke was different.  But the voice was the same.  The eyes.  They were the same.  The mask may have changed them a little, but the way they  _looked_  at her was the same.  The hair.  The same color even if the style wasn’t quite the same.  The feel of it.  The build, their bodies were made the same.

It wasn’t possible.

She grabbed her chest, struggling to handle this, black spots starting to shift across the edges of her vision.  From a distance she heard Tikki calling her name, telling her to breathe, to take deep breathes.  She fought to focus on that, slowly getting air back into her starved lungs.

At last her vision cleared, her chest stopped aching, and her breath evened out.  But she was shaken from her realization, shocked and horrified that she could have never noticed.  All those times Chat had protected her--it had been Adrien all along?

She...  Had almost lost him.  Over and over as he threw himself in the way of danger.  Her dear friend and crush...  Was her partner?  Was the one who saved her life over and over?

She looked at Tikki, taking a slow, deep breath.

“Chat...  Adrien...  He’s saved me so many times, Tikki.  It’s time to return the favor.”


End file.
